A venture in retrotronics
Breakout board for TLC5947 LED driver or other 32-pin HTSSOP/TSSOP package

This is a breakout board for the TI TLC5947 IC, a constant-current LED driver supporting 24 channels, and 12-bit PWM control per channel. Unfortunately this powerful yet easy to drive IC is only available in high-density packages that are hard to solder without special equipment and skill. Even more so considering that the TSSOP package not only features a 0.65mm pitch but also requires an integrated heat sink underneath — this is what TI calls a DAP/PowerPAD Thermally Enhanced package. That means that there is a thermal pad at the bottom side of this HTSSOP package which needs to be connected (i.e. soldered) to a heat sink (i.e. two or more copper planes connected through thermal vias) integrated (i.e. designed) into the PCB.
Features
- breakout board for TI TLC5947 constant-current LED driver
- supporting 24 channels, and 12-bit PWM control per channel
- heat sink integrated in PCB using thermal vias
- available with TLC5947 IC soldered on
- available with R1 preconfigured for 15, 20mA constant current
- also available as a plain item without any components soldered on, for use with any other TSSOP IC (up to 32 pins) in a 0.65mm pitch
- standard 2.54mm (100 mils) pitch, narrow size, making this board very suitable for use on a breadbord
- size: 22.86x43.18mm
- high-quality PCBs, designed in KiCad, and produced by Aisler (Germany), PCBWay (China) and OSH Park (USA)
Usage
This board is available with a TLC5947 IC already soldered on, but also as a plain, empty item which can be used for breaking out any other TSSOP IC (up to 32 pins) in a 0.65mm pitch.
The standard 2.54mm (100 mils) pitch and the narrow size of this breakout board make it very suitable for use on a breadboard.
I myself have used this board for driving 16-segment LED displays when developing a display and effect library for this type of elements in C for AVR8.
For people willing to create their own design using the TLC5947 IC, a footprint for KiCad is available here.